CLC Dance presents Holiday Dance Concert

The College of Lake County Prairie Spirits Dance Troupe will present its annual Holiday Dance Concert in the Mainstage Theatre of the James Lumber Center for the Performing Arts, Grayslake.

The dance concert brings students and professionals together through challenging and absorbing dance. Three performances -- Friday, Nov. 30 and Saturday, Dec. 1 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 2 at 2 p.m. -- will feature choreography by award-winning faculty and national guest artists, who remix the cultural joys of the season into uplifting dance and theater.

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Special guest artists include JulieAnn Graham of Chicago and CLC alum and recent University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate, Carissa Holmes. The concert will also include a guest performance by VADCO/Valerie Alpert Dance Company (Alpert is an associate professor of dance at CLC). Thirty-five members of Prairie Spirits Dance Troupe will perform in the concert. The artistic director is Terry Crews, associate professor of dance.

"Our concert this year uses the winter solstice as its inspiration, with an overall theme of simplicity -- returning to the stripped down, soulful meaning of the season," Crews said. Aside from Crews, faculty choreographers include Alpert, Lamaiya Lancaster and Jeannine Potter, with choreography that includes tap, theatrical and modern works of dance, with music ranging from American Standards to recorded text.

Guest artist JulieAnn Graham has been performing and teaching in the Chicago area for many years. Her latest projects have included Ayako Kato, the Chicago Improvisation Dancing Festival and On Site Performance and a movement piece for Second City's "Feral Pipe Dream" movement show that opened Nov. 10. She is an adjunct professor in the Columbia College of Chicago theater department.

Guest artist and CLC alum Carissa Holmes, who is originally from Wauconda, has worked as an instructor and choreographer since 1999. From 2003 to 2011, Holmes was co-owner and artistic director of a dance studio in Island Lake, where she was instructed advanced level classes.

Holmes has performed with Terpsichore Dance Ensemble, CLC's Prairie Spirits Dance Troupe, Daved Beck's Evolution: The Next Level and TJ & Company Dancers.

Tickets: Regular: $10; CLC/Senior/JLC Subscribers: $8; Children under age 12: $4. Prices include a $1 JLC facility fee. Call (847) 543-2300 or visit www.clcillinois.edu/tickets. The Box Office is open Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and 90 minutes before each performance.